Nepal

the department of revenue has issued a notification to tighten the rules of origin on duty free imports from nepal. the ministry has also outlined special conditions and quotas for sensitive goods like vanaspati. the exemption of the countervailing duty, equivalent to the excise duty on similar goods manufactured in india, will be applicable only to small scale units registered with the government of nepal. analysis shows that there are nine sets of conditions which must be fulfilled by the goods for duty free...

BEIJING: Firming up ties with Nepal, Chinese President Xi Jinping has said the two countries should strengthen cooperation in interconnectivity, infrastructure, and hydropower development as Kathmandu pledged to keep up the crackdown on Tibetans supporting the Dalai Lama. China is willing to initiate talks on Free Trade Agreement with Nepal at an early date, Xi said. He suggested that the two countries should work on traffic interconnectivity,...

i am a regular reader of your paper, and find the 'hard driving' column very interesting. i study in nepal. i am interested in automobiles. i like to read about automobiles, especially motorcycles, (two-wheelers) old ones, launched (introduced) and those which will be launched including their differences (eg, engine power, highest speed, average kilometre/hour, etc). i would be very grateful to you if you could give me the deatils. hrishikesh taparia panitanki, po box 54, biratnagar-3, nepal hard driving thanks you for your...

KOLKATA: India's exports to Nepal through the Raxaul have been badly affected since the Customs Department is creating hurdles by insisting on manual set of key export documents like remittance certificates (known as Bank Realisation Certificates) even as the port at the entry point to the neighbouring country has gone partially electronic through an EDI system. According to the engineering exporters' body, EEPC India, the problem faced by exporters including major Steel...

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama has nominated an Indian-American , a former official at its Embassy in New Delhi, as the next US ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives. Obama yesterday announced the nomination of Atul Keshap , a career foreign service official, as the next US ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives along with Alaina Teplitz as the next ambassador to Nepal. While announcing their nominations, Obama said, "I am honored...

It's not good news. India continues to be a tough place to do business though the government has improved regulatory processes for starting enterprises and trading across borders. In business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce readiness ranking of 130 countries released by the UN Conference on Trade and Development, India is placed 83rd, just notches above Pakistan (86), Vietnam (90) and Nepal (94).

india on thursday announced an 800 million nepali rupees (about rs 48 crore) assistance to nepal for identified social sector projects in education and rural development. the announcement was made by prime minister atal bihari vajpayee shortly after his arrival here for the three-day saarc summit beginning on friday, the first by him as prime minister to the himalayan kingdom. vajpayee also called on his nepalese counterpart sher bahadur deuba and later had an audience with king gyanendra, who hosted...

kathmandu: a powerful bomb exploded on monday, partly damaging the building of gorkhapatra corporation, which publishes two major government dailies, the rising nepal and gorkhapatra . nobody was hurt in the blast which shook the building of nepal's oldest publication house, creating two feet hole in the first floor, sources said, adding six suspects have been arrested in this connection the attack came as part of the 'janakarwahi' (people's...

CANCUN: Cambodia and Nepal got the green light on Thursday to join WTO, but Cambodia said it had had to pay a heavy price for entry. "We believe that the package of concessions and commitments that we have to accept certainly goes far beyond what is commensurate with (Cambodia's) level of development," commerce minister Cham Prasidh told WTO ministers. He said the southeast Asian nation, whose main products are textiles and rice, had pressed forward with accession because of signs the Geneva-based...

KATHMANDU: When D K Bahadur Thapa Magar of Nepal's remote Okhaldhunga district fell in love with Parbati Danuwar of Kavre, close to Kathmandu, the match was fiercely opposed by Parbati's father Niraraj as the young man belonged to a different caste. Though the couple still married against the wishes of their families, five days ago, the match ended in stark tragedy with police finding the 29-year-old groom hanging from the rafters of his rented room in Kathmandu. At first it was thought to be a...

KATHMANDU: Opening new avenues in the aviation sector in the region, India's leading private domestic carrier Jet Airways on Friday began operating to Kathmandu, launching its second international service after Colombo. The inaugural Kathmandu flight of the airlines, which has already got the permission to fly to all SAARC countries, was traditionally received at the Tribhuvan International Airport here. "So far we have got the permission to fly to all SAARC countries by the...

KATHMANDU: Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar will visit Nepal next week on the second leg of his 'SAARC yatra' aimed at firming up India's ties with members of the grouping while reviewing regional and bilateral cooperation. He will arrive in Nepal on April 2 on a three-day visit during which he will hold talks with the country's top leadership. The visit also comes as a follow up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's trip here in November last year to attend the 18th SAARC...

NEW DELHI: Pakistan and Nepal, which announced bigger cigarette pack warnings shortly after India did last year, have urged India to resist pressure from the tobacco industry and implement the 85 per cent pictographic warnings on packs. Pakistan's health minister Saira Afzal Tarar told ET in a statement over mail that her ministry "has resolved to firmly resist the pressure of tobacco industry that it is exerting through various fronts". Urging India to stay...

WASHINGTON: The first global conference on Dalit rights will be held here to increase awareness about injustices faced by nearly 260 million people across the globe including in India due to caste-based discrimination. The three-day conference on 'Defending Dalit Rights' entitled 'Establishing Justice, Dignity, Equality and Humanity' is being organised by the International Commission for Dalit Rights (ICDR) and Global Conference...

KATHMANDU: A Chinese company today signed a deal to invest $ 300 million in Nepalese cement industry, making it the largest foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country so far. China's Hongshi Holdings Group signed a joint venture agreement with Shivam Holdings Nepal to set up a Rs 30 billion ($ 300 million) cement factory. Under the agreement the Hongshi Holdings will invest Rs 21 billion (70 per cent) in the project while the Nepali partner will put Rs 9 billion.

BEIJING: Nepal's Foreign Minister will visit China next week to hold talks with Chinese leaders on a host of bilateral issues, including efforts to increase trade and investments, a senior official said here today. Mahendra Bahadur Pandey will visit China from March 17 to 21 at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei told reporters here. Pandey's upcoming visit is part of activities to celebrate the 60th...

KATHMANDU: India and Nepal today lifted a decade-long ban on carrying of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 Indian bank notes by their nationals while visiting each other's countries by setting a maximum limit of Rs 25,000 for the high denomination currency , benefiting tourists. "We have decided to allow our nationals to carry Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denomination notes up to the limit of Rs 25,000," Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced here. Indian bank notes above Rs 100...

KATHMANDU: Nepal excels at zero poaching of tigers while India is the "tiger heavyweight" in the region in terms of recovering the number of the cats, according to organisers of an anti-poaching summit here. Nepal, which has pioneered in conserving tigers, is hosting an international anti-poaching conference beginning tomorrow. The five-day international symposium on the theme 'Toward Zero Poaching' is aimed at forging international cooperation to curb illegal poaching of...

KATHMANDU: Google launched a virtual tour of Nepal's Everest region on Thursday, allowing armchair tourists a rare glimpse of life in one of the toughest and most inaccessible places on earth. The Street View project takes viewers into the heart of the Sagarmatha national park, home to the world's highest mountain, where icy blue rivers run below snow-capped peaks, monks play traditional music and yak-herders navigate precipitous stone-strewn trails. Armed with two...